Sermons

December 7, 2014 Text: Isaiah 40:1-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

Jeremy Cowart is a professional photographer in Los Angeles. His portfolio includes Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, and the Kardashians. One of his most beautiful and intriguing photographs, however, involves people you don’t know. It was taken when Cowart was in Kiev, Ukraine. He photographed two people standing outside St. Michael’s Church and Monastery. When you look at the photo, you can’t help but be surprised.
At the bottom of the photo, there are two people, young, preoccupied. One carries a bag over her shoulder and looks straight in your direction. The other is wearing a suit and a tie. His head is slightly tilted as he looks off into the distance. Both have the appearance of anyone you could meet on the street.
Behind them, however, is the wall of a monastery. It rises above them and is covered with angels. There are so many angels that you can’t see all of their faces. Behind these two ordinary people is a world of gold, filled with angels and wings.
If they would just turn around they would be amazed at the world that surrounds them. Their ordinary life is filled with the presence of angels. God is inviting them into an overwhelming experience of his personal love.
Unfortunately, what we see in this photograph often happens in our lives. We are so preoccupied with life that we never truly see the wonder of God’s ways. For this reason our text from Isaiah is a blessing this morning. He calls us today to stop and listen. Isaiah offers you . . .
“A VISION OF GOD’S LOVE”
Right away you have probably noticed there are no angels explicitly mentioned in our text. No picture of God seated with thousands of angels around him. In fact, Isaiah only gives us a voice, the voice of God that he hears.
Earlier though when Isaiah first received his call, he saw a glimpse of the heavenly council. He saw God “sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.” (Isa. 6:1) This God called Isaiah to speak, and he gave him the words to say.
This is what he is doing in our text. Instead of speaking judgment on the people, God is bringing comfort to his people. Hear this mercy: “Comfort, comfort my people,” says God. Not once but twice. God is emphatic. He is sending an army of angels to provide this comfort. They are to speak to his people, proclaim that their exile is over, their sin is pardoned, and they have peace with their God.
This mission, once given to angels, continues in our midst today. Advent reminds us of God’s mission. John the Baptizer was out in the wilderness calling all people to repent and prepare for the Lord. They were to receive baptism for the forgiveness of sins. The one coming was greater than John. The one sent from the Father would die for our sins. He rose and ascended to his Father to be seated on the heavenly throne. Jesus rules, and as long as this world endures, his mission continues. He now sends his Spirit to equip us to join in this mission of mercy to the ends of the earth.
This is a mission of love. The angels are to speak tenderly to God’s people. The language of God, who is in love with his people. Though they have strayed, God continues to seek them out.
This text is a foretaste of a more personal love. Advent prepares us for Christmas and God’s gift of personal love. Remember the angels who filled the heavens to announce this event? God in the flesh came in the person of Jesus to suffer God’s wrath and bring us back into a right relationship with our heavenly Father. When we stray he seeks us out and brings us back. Personal love, spoken in his Word, and also spoken personally by a preacher he has sent, today, to you.
Have you noticed how talk of religion can become divisive? The ways of God are different from the ways of the world, and religious speech is often heard as an attack on others rather than as an invitation to participate in a new way of life.
God invites you into his personal mission of love. Knowing the forgiveness of sins in your life and being equipped by the Holy Spirit you join the chorus of witnesses who speak of His love. Angels surround you as you serve God in the world, and they look forward to singing a song of joy over one sinner who repents.
When you look at Jeremy Cowart’s photograph, it is interesting to see how near the angels are to our world. One angel stands there behind the man in the suit and tie. In one hand, the angel carries a lily. In the other hand, a staff and his forefinger are extended. It reaches out from the mural to point the young man in front of him, standing there, staring off in the distance.
In Renaissance art, one angel often carries a lily. Gabriel. The angel God sent to Mary to announce that she would bear God’s Son. How beautiful that this angel, so close to the incarnation, is also so close to this young man.
God sent his Son into the world for individual people, like this young man. Though they may not be attending to God in the world, God is attending to them. Sending His Son to forgive their sins and then sending his angels, sending his prophets, sending his Pastors, sending his people to join in this mission of love.
God’s overwhelming mission, so personal in Jesus, remains personal today as God sends you to be a messenger, bearing his word of good news to others.
Amen.

Nov. 30, 2014 Text: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Dear Friends in Christ,

Can you think of times in our world when people were not prepared? How about these: The German invasion of Poland in 1939. The Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Islamic terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001. The tsunami that roared across the Indian Ocean in December 2004. Hurricane Katrina that devastated the Gulf Coast back in 2005. Tornadoes that come without warning. The recent snowstorm in New York State.
Waiting is one thing when we’re prepared. Waiting is quite another when we’re unprepared. And how can we possibly be prepared when we don’t know what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen?
Today begins the new church year and the season of Advent. This liturgical season is all about preparation and . . . waiting. I’ve titled the sermon after a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song from the 1980’s. Even though it was probably not meant to be theological this is the line in the song right before the title. “You take it on faith, you take it to the heart . . .
“THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART”
Paul as he writes to the Corinthians acknowledges that they lack nothing. They were enriched in speech and knowledge. They have been given grace through Jesus Christ. The testimony of Christ was confirmed among them.
We also lack nothing. We have been enriched through God’s good gifts. Christ revealed, salvation completed, surrounded by the grace and mercy of the Savior.
Yet we are waiting. We are waiting for “the day.” (v. 8) When I say that, what do many of you immediately think of? You think of the day that is still twenty-five days away. You think of the preparations that still have to be made. You will not be caught unprepared. You know it’s coming so why worry.
It is true that many of us are waiting for Christmas and the blessing of celebrating and worshipping Jesus Christ, the revealed Son of God the Father, born in Bethlehem. But Paul is not writing about Christmas. He is writing about the Greater Day. The return of Jesus Christ. And so we wait. Strangers in a strange land.
While many may agree that “waiting is the hardest part” when it comes to Christmas, do you feel the same way about the return of Christ? Is waiting the hardest part? Or is it not knowing when this will occur the hardest part? Do you take it on faith? Do you take it to the heart? Is the waiting the hardest part?
With Christmas we have a fixed date. Even though we may flitter around wondering how we will accomplish all that needs to get done, we can look back on a record number of years where we accomplished what we wanted. The worry melts away like the spring snows because we have been through it before. The rhythm of life helps us to be prepared.
The opposite can happen with the return of Jesus. Since we do not know the date, we can worry about whether our faith life is in the right place. Do I fully trust Christ as Savior? Has my heart been prepared for His salvation? We may even begin to join the scoffers of the day who insist that Jesus isn’t ever going to return, because after all, where has He been as the world falls apart?
And still, we are ready. We are prepared. This is not we scurrying to the mall to get eternal clothes for Jesus’ arrival. We are not the ones hanging the stockings by the chimney in hopes that Christ would soon be here. Paul writes, “as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (vs. 7b-9)
We are not sustaining ourselves to the end. God is. He is preparing our hearts and our minds for the expected arrival back to earth of our Savior. We are not always faithful. God is always faithful. We are no longer guilty of our offenses but through the death and resurrection of Christ we are guiltless. “Jesus has cleansed His church by removing the sins of believers through His own blood on the cross. This cleansing has been applied to Christians through Holy Baptism.” (Eph. 5:26) When Jesus returns the church will be blameless because God who is faithful keeps it in the cleansing flow of His grace. It all God’s doing through the Word and the Sacraments. He has prepared us. Yes, the waiting is the hardest part because we cannot wait to experience the joy of being with the Lord forever.
Take it on faith. Take it to the heart. The return of Christ our Savior is the blessed part.
Amen.

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Nov. 23, 2014 – Stewardship Sunday Texts: Deut. 7:7-8, Rom 5:6-8, John 2:1-10

Dear Friends in Christ,

Two men crashed their private plane on a South Pacific Island. One of the men brushed himself off and proceeded to run all over the island to see if they had any chance of survival. When he returned, he rushed up to the other man and screamed, “This Island is uninhabited and there is no food or water. We’re going to die!”
The other man leaned back against the fuselage of the wrecked plane, folded his arms and responded, “No we’re not, I make over $100,000 a week.” The first man grabbed his friend and shook him. “Listen, we’re on a deserted island. We’re doomed!” Still unfazed, the man looked the other guy in the eye and said, “It’s OK. I make over $100,000 per week and give 10% to the church. My Pastor will find us!”
It’s Stewardship Sunday. Time to take inventory of how we use God’s precious gifts to us. It’s all about Him – the Savior, Jesus. He makes what we do for Him and His kingdom worth it.
“WHY YOUR LIFE IS WORTH HIS LIFE”
Our first text from Deuteronomy, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
That same truth applies to us. We are a chosen people that belong to God. And please know that we are not chosen and made His because we are all great and wonderful. Scripture says we are sinful people like filthy rags. We are his enemies because of our sin.
Christ through His grace has saved us. We are saved from the terrors and torment of hell. We are saved from having to prove ourselves to God. We are saved from the culture we want to adapt to. We are saved through a beaten, bloodied, spiked to a cross, facing the depths of hell Savior who loved us enough to bear the punishment for our filthy rags. Your life was worth His life.
Our Epistle lesson spells it out even more clearly. Paul writes, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
We are weak, aren’t we? Struggling with our sin. Giving into temptation and the devil. Sometimes making a real royal mess of our lives. Going after the self-helps of the world only to find that makes it worse. We need Jesus. We need His love, forgiveness and guidance through His Word every day. That changes how I live and how I treat others. It is worth everything. Your life was worth His life.
Our last text is the first miracle Jesus every performed. Commonly known as “changing water into wine.” Our focus today is on verse 10, “(The master of the feast) said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.’”
The master of the feast recognized the wine’s high quality, giving witness to the miracle’s greatness. The Lord always gives the best.
Think of the good wine you have been granted in this life. Financial blessings showered up on you. A country where you can come to worship without fear of retribution or imprisonment. The amazing abilities that the Creator God has given unto you. The time granted on this earth to serve God and your fellow man. The children on loan to you to shepherd in the faith. Do you recognize the good wine that comes from the hands of your Redeemer?
Sometimes though we drink from the poor wine and wallow in our self-pity. “I don’t have what my neighbor has.” “Why can’t I do ________ as well as so and so?” “Where is the time Lord to get done what needs to get done.” All this does is make us whiners filled with the poor wine of our own making.
We forget we are the ones chosen to attend the wedding feast and given the good wine. The miracle worker Jesus makes this all possible. The guests at the wedding didn’t do anything to deserve this gift. They were the blessed recipients.
What we tend to do in the church is turning away from the eternal truths of God’s Word and focus on human fulfillment. This guts the central tenet of the faith once delivered to the saints, namely God’s one-way love in his Son Jesus Christ.
Last year Tullian Tchvidjian, Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and grandson of evangelist Billy Graham, wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post deploring this capitulation of churches toward expressive individualism. He wrote:
“The hub of Christianity is not ‘do something for Jesus.’ The hub of Christianity is ‘Jesus has done everything for you.’ And my fear is that too many people, both inside and outside the church, have heard our ‘do more, try harder’ sermons and pleas for intensified devotion and concluded that the focus of the Christian faith is the work that we do instead of the work God has done for us in the person of Jesus.”
He cares for you. He loves you. He died for you. Your life is worth His life.
Amen.

November 9, 2014 Text: Matthew 25:1-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

When it comes to preparation, how well do you do? Do you usually have things in order are you running around at the last minute? Did you know what you were going to wear to church today last night or was it a snap decision this morning because you were in a green mood? I had to prepare to deliver this message: read and study the text, check the commentaries, pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance and wisdom, then sit down and do it. If you have schoolwork or a project at work you prepare. If you don’t, well you know the consequences of that decision. Think of these two-word phrases that can scare most of us: “pop quiz”, “surprise inspection”, “unvited guests”.
Another area of life where most of us prepare is when we take a trip. This tends to change as we age. In college my friends and I took my car to Daytona Beach, Florida and I don’t even remember checking the oil. I would not dream of doing that today. I get the oil changed in our cars regularly. It is good maintenance. It is good preparation. It is just plain smart. Today, in our text, we have ten virgins. Five have oil for their lamps. Five do not. Who is prepared and who is not?
“CHECKING YOUR OIL”
In Jesus’ day, the couple’s parents would have arranged this marriage. Part of the joy and anticipation of the festivities would include the bridegroom coming to meet his bride. The bridegroom could come any time day or night. The bride was to be ready. The bridesmaids would help to keep her awake.
In the parable, we have half being wise and half being foolish. The Greek root of foolish is the English word moron. A moron is someone who lacks good judgment. The virgins are outwardly alike. In spite of this five of them did not have any oil. Oil symbolizes spirit and life. In other words, the foolish ones fell away from the faith. The flame of the lamp and its light is faith and its good works. The oil is grace through the Word. The lamp is our outward Christianity. The foolish virgins have the outward signs but inwardly are strangers to Christ. We need to be going back constantly for that oil. Checking your oil.
How does our faith look to the world? Is my lamp burning? Have I prepared? Have I checked the oil? Am I leaking oil as I get distracted by career, family, hobbies, anger, lust, greed. Not to mention worry and doubt. Do the distractions of this world cause us to run ourselves into the ground? Cause our light to flicker? Does our lamp become a burden?
God in his unconditional love goes to great lengths to protect our faith. Faith can die. Jesus talks about priorities and commitments. His desire, His plan, is to keep our lamps filled with oil so we can rejoice when he, the Bridegroom, arrives. Jesus is our Savior. He suffered and died for us. He gives us lamps. He lights our lamps. He fills our lamps with oil. He keeps our lamps full of oil.
How does He do this? Our lamps are filled with Christ through His Word. We need the oil that Holy Scripture can bring. In worship, oil is poured into our lamps so that we are prepared for whatever may come our way. At the font Christ filled you by washing you clean and warding off the attacks of Satan. At this Holy Table, where Christ enters your body and soul to forgive your sin, strengthen your faith in this difficult, fallen world, and where He promises you a place at the greater feast to come.
And when He comes, no matter when that will be, your lamps, your faith, your lives will be filled with Christ – the “one thing needful.”
Putting oil in our lamp is best accomplished as more than a once-a-week chore like filling the gas tank. It is more than a weekend hobby. It is an existence. We are prepared. Christ has prepared us. Jesus keeps us prepared. God keeps our lamps full of oil and our lights burning so that we can see the way to go. When are eyes are on Christ, his promise to us fills our lamps with oil.
Amen.

Nov. 2, 2014 – All Saints Sunday Text: I Corinthians 15:26

Dear Friends in Christ,
Paul gets to the point in our text. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Death is not our friend. Death is not a celebration. Death is not natural. Death is punishment. Death is the horrendous separation of body and soul.
We can dress it up any way we want. We do it in our language – “She passed away.” “He has gone to the great beyond.” “At least they died together.” We do it in appearance. “Doesn’t he look good?” “Didn’t they do a nice job with the color of her face?” When my mom died we had a closed casket but before that the family could see her. Family thought I needed to see her. I didn’t need that. I saw her the day she died and what death and sin do to our mortal body. I’ve seen death up close and personal and no amount of makeup changes the devastating affects.
We talk of death, but today, All Saints Sunday, is to be a celebration. How can that be? How can death be so tough to deal with and yet we can belt out “For All the Saints” with a smile on our face and the hair on the back of our neck tingling? You know, because you are here. Christ Jesus makes the difference. Our Christian faith brings the joy. Heaven is our home. Let us see how we overcome . . .
“DEATH: THE LAST GREAT ENEMY”
Death is an enemy and it has friends. Child abuse, genocide, starvation, violence, oppression. Picture the scenes. A soldier rapes in the name of a cause. People are beheaded because of where they are born. We see abortion clinics where mother and precious child both are sucked up in a culture of death.
Look at death in some of our neighborhoods. The homeless shivering in the winter and sweating in the heat. Drug deals stealing youth and hope alike. Gunfire breaking the silence. The rise of suicides. Children cutting themselves.
Death is ruthless. It ambushes some and slowly sucks the life out of others. Unless Jesus returns you are another statistic at the local morgue waiting to happen.
American culture does not want to hear this story. We glamourize it. We see it so often on big screen and small screen that we become desensitized. We hide it from view and seldom talk about it because it makes so many uncomfortable. There is no greater law than a dead body. It pierces the heart and is an in-your-face reminder that you to will face this enemy.
We have hope. Oh do we have hope. Defeating the enemy because we believe in the resurrection of the body. The Apostle’s Creed directs us to that victory when we confess, “I believe…in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”
We have concern for life after death – the interim state of the soul – but do we miss what has been called “life after life after death?” This is the Christian’s hope – the final day, the resurrection of the body, and the new creation of the heavens and earth.
In the Bible you will find our temporary state as we await, even in death, the return of Jesus. When He comes again He will fully and finally defeat death. Look at Jesus’ words: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40)
So what is the ultimate and final victory over death? The last day finds God not abandoning His creation but redeeming it. The last day resurrection brings back our bodies with all their senses and members. These bodies will not be subjected to disease and decay; we will be transformed like Jesus’s glorified body. Justice will prevail as all things are made right. You know the phrases – no more tears, no more hunger, no more thirst, no more pain, no more abuse, no more genocide, no more abortion, no more addiction. No more of death’s friends to wreak havoc on our bodies. And joyfully, wonderfully – no more death. Indeed, no more death!
All this happens when Jesus returns to earth. His return is the biblical answer to death. Our hope is the same as Martha when Lazarus died. “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (John 11:24) Hope anticipates. Hope looks forward. Hope eagerly awaits. We simply are not prepared to die unless our hope is the true biblical hope, which is standing on its tiptoes watching and waiting for Jesus’ return.
How do we prepare to die? By proclaiming the victory over death that Jesus’s return brings. By taking the friends of death and turning them into defeated foes on the last day. By describing the glories of the resurrection. By reading the Scriptures and looking forward to the Day of the Lord, the return of Christ, and simply declaring what those words say to us.
In the meantime, those who live with this future hope are invited, called, and urged to bring glimpses, moments of that hope into this broken world. Paul ends the great resurrection chapter in Corinthians with these words: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, knowing that in the lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor. 15:58) Whatever we do to combat that great enemy death and its wretched friends is not wasted. Our acts for the least of our world, care for all of God’s creation, defense of the oppressed and defenseless, contributions to feed and clothe others, and thousands of other acts of justice and beauty in opposition to the ugliness and injustice of this evil age are not in vain.
Join in this work of re-creation now. Be kingdom people who stand confident in the face of death and know your actions make a difference.
We are prepared to die and overcome the last great enemy death when we preach and hear God’s word. Confess the creed. Celebrate the resurrection each Sunday. “There breaks a yet more glorious day: The saints triumphant rise in bright array; The King of Glory passes on His way. Alleluia! Alleluia!”
Amen.